NEWS Everything has been said !

..and more ! A big announcement today on AC's fb page, with cool information about what the near (and not so near) future will bring to Assetto Corsa. A special mention goes to AC member the_meco, proving once more that outstanding work does not go unnoticed and "unpunished" .

"Dear Assetto Corsa fans

We know that in the last few weeks we have been very silent, but there was a valid reason; all our resources and everybody in the dev team have been working real hard in order to finish Assetto Corsa and to prepare a preview Release Candidate version to journalists from all around the world. On September 29, we organized an exclusive event at Kunos Simulazioni headquarters inside "Autodromo di Vallelunga". Over 130 journalists have participated in our event, organized with the precious collaboration of Fanatec, NVIDIA, rSEAT, RSR-Nurburg, Media consultants and Ibuz.com. At the end of the scheduled press conference, during which we illustrated all Assetto Corsa features and the complex development process, our guests got the opportunity to try the release candidate preview of Assetto Corsa in 4 simulators with the latest Fanatec Clubsport Wheel V.2. Additionally, guests could try an amazing rSEAT RS1 M4A Full motion simulator, Fanatec Clubsport Wheel V.2 and pedals and Oculus Rift DK2 . So yes, we know you've been waiting for it, Assetto Corsa supports Oculus DK2!
We could have ended the day there and it would have been a cool typical videogame presentation, but you know we breath motorsport and so we wanted a much more immersive experience for our guests. At the Vallelunga circuit pitlane, 15 real Sportcars that are also included in Assetto Corsa, were available for test drive! We wanted to demonstrate and let our guests compare the fidelity of our simulator with a direct comparison to reality. We will soon post footage, photos and more info about the event, but first let us share with you the info about Assetto Corsa.

First of all, let us thank you for the incredible support we got to this amazing project and to our software house, by participating in the Early Access program. Lot's of you have been following this project and our work for a little bit less than a year and probably do not know that when we decided to create and announce Assetto Corsa in 2011, we were thinking to include in version 1.0, a total amount of 15 cars and 3 to 4 italian circuits. Today, Assetto Corsa 1.0 includes circuits like Monza, NurburgringGP, Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and more. All of them created with the use of Laserscan technology. It also includes incredible cars, produced by the likes of Ferrari, McLaren, Pagani, Mercedes, BMW, Alfa Romeo and much more.
Even more circuits and cars are under development and will be released after version1.0 of Assetto Corsa. Lot's of those new contents will be free add-ons! This is our way to say thank you for the support you have given us.
Grazie!

Assetto Corsa Release Candidate will be published in the following days. We're working with the feedback of our internal beta-testing team, in order to iron out bugs and improve features. The Release Candidate version has substantial differences from the current Steam Early Access version. New features and improvements to the graphics engine, a brand new sound engine based on FMOD Studio that guarantees more immersion, reverb effects and the ability to control a whole new series of additional effects. A complete remake of all the sounds of every single car has been necessary; an incredible amount of work for our sound engineer.

Some of the features of the new graphics engine, have been already included in the early access build release at the end of the summer. The fantastic videos and screenshots released by the community have shown the a great appreciation of the new engine, but the best is yet to come. Assetto Corsa v1.0 will include heat shimmering, lens flare, God-rays, depth of field improvements, FXAA, tone mapping and more. Every single post processing effect can be activated from the graphics options in order to give you the freedom to configure Assetto Corsa to your specific needs, both in terms of visual quality and performance scalability. Assetto Corsa guarantees adequate frame rate performances, from the most powerful PCs, to the minimum requested hardware configuration. As a matter of fact, the new release also includes support for 4K resolution, static reflections for low performance PCs, dust and dirt on cars, improved smoke and particles, new pilot 3D model that is more detailed and realistic, and collidable objects on circuits.

Assetto Corsa Release Candidate also includes damage to the car bodies, wings, suspensions, engine, gearbox and tyres. Tyres in particular can now simulate blistering, graining, flat spots and blow ups. Because of all these simulated damages and your always important requests, we work hard to include a feature that we are sure will make everybody excited. Pitstops! We have implemented pitstops with animated cinematic pitcrew. Assetto Corsa v1.0 pitstops implementation will support only multiplayer races, but we're working hard to include single player pitstops in one of our next free updates. The delay on the single player implementation, is caused by the need to define and balance the AI pitstop strategy during races.

Assetto Corsa v1.0 is not the end of the journey. More contents and features are being developed and we will inform you about them in the following days. In the mean time, here is the list of the new contents that you will find in Assetto Corsa Release Candidate:
The Lotus 2-11 GT4 and Lotus Exige S, as well as a unique version of the Evora GTE featuring all body panels made entirely of carbonfibre and substantial weight savings.
The much anticipated Ferrari 458 GT2 and Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3.
Ferrari LaFerrari which includes in Assetto Corsa a very advanced simulation of hybrid systems.
Silverstone National and the legendary SPA-Francorchamps recreated in extreme detail using Laserscan technology.
A surprise new entry that also showcases the close connection of Assetto Corsa dev team with the community. We're extremely happy to announce the Carroll-Shelby Cobra 427SC as an official licensed content.
We had plans to include this car in our officially licensed content, but we were surprised and impressed by the work of a great modder that published some amazing screenshots of his work. His mod has took the community by storm and has been highly appraised by everybody. This convinced us that we had to do something about it. We contacted Carrol-Shelby and got the official license and at the same time we worked with the modder and acquired his work. So here it is, the Shelby Cobra 427SC as a free bonus content for Assetto Corsa 1.0. Obviously the already graet physics have been re-implemented, the graphics and sound assets have been updated and are now completely compatible with Assetto Corsa new graphics and sound engine.
We think this is a great tribute to the modder's outstanding work and a compliment and appreciation to the work of the hundreds of modders that are actively supporting Assetto Corsa.

Please enjoy some in-game screenshots directly from the Release Candidate that will be published as soon as possible.
Again, thank you for the great support!"

Meh, tbh I simply can't hold that against them. Maybe because LFS trained me well , but mainly because I can understand Kunos position. Even though they are increasing the team, I feel they are still working like an indie studio (and I love that) with things going in and out of control sometimes, but with no imposed deadlines by shareholders of publisher [big we-just-want-your-money name]. With Kunos, you can really feel the passion they put into their work, and don't mind as much if planned date gets a little postponed.
..and from a distant point, I can also relate.. look at my parking project. Or better, don't just yet. Of course I still plan to finish it...